1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for judging whether or not recognition results of image recognition processing performed on medical images are correct. The invention also relates to a computer readable recording medium having a program stored therein for causing a computer to perform the method.
2. Description of the Related Art
A variety of technologies for recognizing various structures in medical images are proposed. For example, a technology for recognizing structures represented by tomographic images obtained by imaging a subject with an imaging modality, such as CT or MRI, is known. More specifically, a method in which input images are classified into categories based on medical image management information and image size, then a plurality of candidate template images are selected from a storage storing template images with respect to each category to be recognized using the classification result of the input image, and a comparison is made between each of the selected template images and the input image to determine the category of the template image which best matches with the input image is known as described, for example, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2002-253539. Another method which applies a face recognition method using a unique image and recognizes an imaged direction and imaged region using a unique image with respect to each imaged direction and imaged region, such as liver, chest, stomach, or the like provided in advance using a plurality of image data is also known as described, for example, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2003-10166.
Still another technology such as that for recognizing lung fields by making use of template matching with a medical image representing the chest of a human body as input, or that for recognizing ribs by applying an inputted medical image to a rib model obtained by principal component analysis using multitudes of teacher data are known as described, for example, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2006-6359.
Generally, not all of image recognition results are correct, and it is necessary to check and correct errors of the recognition results, and manual checking and correction thereof places a burden on the part of users. In particular, in the case of three-dimensional images obtained by CT, MRI, or the like, checking target images may amount to huge, so that manual checking and correction causes a large amount of workload on the users.
The image discrimination method, and imaged direction and structure recognition method described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2002-253539 and Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2003-10166, however, are performed with respect to each medical image. For example, these patent documents do not suggest any problems when discriminating/recognizing a plurality of structures included in a plurality of tomographic images obtained by one series of radiography (e.g., workload of checking and correction described above) and methods for solving the problems. Also, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2006-6359 does not suggest any problems and methods of solving the problems.
The present invention has been developed in view of the circumstances described above, and it is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus and method capable of providing more accurate recognition results while alleviating the burden on the users. It is a further object of the present invention to provide a computer readable recording medium having a program for causing a computer to perform the method recorded therein.